The Arabic expression Ahl al-Kitāb, ‘people of the Book’, has been used in reference to Jews, Christians, Muslims, Zoroastrians and Sabaeans, all recipients of scriptures revealed by God. In addition to being known as monotheistic, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are called religions of revelation or of the Book due to their faith in the power of language. In all three, God has spoken and the people have recorded His words in texts.

Hebrew and Arabic are considered sacred languages, identical to their religions. Judaism holds that what is recorded in the scriptures is the actual word of God in its original language. In contrast, Christianity is based on the word of God in translation. The Hebrew Bible contains thousands of words that are believed to have been spoken or inspired by God. The Christian New Testament includes words spoken or inspired by Jesus Christ, but not in their original form, but rather translated into Greek, except for some expressions in Aramaic. For Muslims, the revelation contained in the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Gospel is completed with the Koran in Arabic.

Hinduism also has a sacred language, Sanskrit, the language of the Vedic corpus, likewise considered revealed. ‘What [was] heard’ (Shruti) by visionary sages in the past, and passed down unchanged through the generations, corresponds to an eternal sound. However, the Vedic scriptures that contain this sound are called apauruseya to indicate that the source of the revelation is neither human nor necessarily divine.

In other Indic traditions, such as Jainism and Buddhism, there is no sacred language. Neither the Jina Mahavīra nor the Buddha preached in Sanskrit, but in Prakrit (a term used to refer to a variety of dialects derived from Sanskrit), and their teachings have always been conveyed in different languages.